Christmas is coming

And, for the first time ever, more people will do their shopping on mobile than on desktop.

Advertising spend is expecting to boom over the holiday season as advertisers gear up their campaigns this Christmas, pushing products and targeting customers more than ever, with total ad spend predicted to hit record levels.

Last year holiday sales grew 8 times faster online than in stores, according to Adobe Digital Insights (ADI), a research division that does analysis of select, anonymous, and aggregated data from more than 5,000 companies worldwide that use the Adobe Marketing Cloud.

In the UK, for example, ad spend is predicted to reach a record £6 billion, while, in the US, the expectations are as high as $107.4 billion with approximately 54% of visits coming from mobile. This figure is the first time, ever, that breaks through the $100 billion mark in online sales!

Those are quite phenomenal numbers and a true testament to the ever-growing rise and popularity of mobile device use, a fact we have blogged about several times in the past.

Challenges and Opportunities

These predictions present both opportunities and challenges.

“This is a huge opportunity for retailers, who need to make sure their online experience delights customers and is able to handle the expected uplift in traffic during the November through December holiday period,” said Taylor Schreiner, principal analyst at ADI. “Consumers expect fluid experiences, and even a small hiccup could mean a lost sale.”

On the flip side, the challenge to create quality ads, in multiple formats and sizes, represents a huge production challenge for retailers. These challenges are either solved by the creation of a huge creative department, filled with creative staff that are skilled in multi channel ad design, or the implementation of a robust dynamic publishing solution, such as Easybuild 2.

To monitor shopping statistics in real time, Adobe has created a website as a gift to all that are involved in advertising and whose revenue is derived from, successful, online sales. That, in turn, will depend on the brand’s ability to produce quality ads, in every channel, in a timely and efficient manner.